The Authority Vol. 2

This decent size volume (larger than volume 1) continues series with a new writer and artist. Volume 1 ended with the death of Jenny Sparks at the end of the millenium with the teams leadership being handed over to Jack Hawksmoore, the King of Cities. What unfolds in this volume is the 'what happened next' The answer is ' a heck of a lot'The pacing in this series is pretty breakneck with the Authority going from secret protectors of Earth as per vol 1 to very publicly intervening in world affairs once Hawksmoore takes over. The stories are executed with a lot of political awareness and subtext whilst not holding back on more adult themes, the doctors substance abuse for example.The core team starts off pretty much as it was a the end of volume 1, to avoid further spoilers there's a seeminglyu big change up in the 'Transfer of Power' story line here but thats best enjoyed as you read.The artwork isn't as crisp as Hitches work on volume 1 with the characters like Hawksmoore drawn as hulkish man beasts, it's a stylistic choice more than a flaw but I prefer the cleaner lines of the 1st issues. The writing standard is maintained between Ellis and Miller, with Miller here maybe injecting a few more shocks value items, more profanity and in your face stuff but it doesn't make this volume any less enjoyable.The scope of this book is huge, the journey the team take from start to finish here covers an incredible amount of events in 416 pages and the perils faced are at minimum on the planetary scale. This is a damn good adult comic series. You can pick up from volume 2 but I would recommend reading the 1st volume beforehand to set the scene. Only thing I would have liked more of here is more Midnighter, he's a great dark reflection of batman.Story 5 starsArt 4, at thats purely a personal thing

The story and art are excellent, however there's a significant problem with the Kindle version of this title when viewed on an iPad.Firstly, the content is 'locked' on the page so that you cannot use your fingers to zoom in (Vol 1 doesn't have this problem). Plus, the mechanism that blows up the panels to allow you to read it is broken on some pages (it greys out the background, but doesn't load the panels in question). This renders some pages unreadable.Deleting and reloading the file doesn't fix the issue and it seems to be a fault of how the actual file is coded for some pages.

I liked it. Ok, not all of it. SPOILER Right up to the bit with the replacement Authority it was fine. Not as good as the first one, but not terrible. From that moment onwards it was a massive disappointment. Can't recommend it.